Booting from USB on Acer Aspire One running XP
 

I was about to throw away an old Acer Aspire One netbook that was on XP, but thought that I would try to run a smaller version of Linux on it. I chose Puppy. The machine is 1.8GHz, 1 G ram, so low powered for the regular Ubuntu, I thought. The F2 takes me to InsydeH2O setup utility, but I am not sure which BIOS I am running.

My problem is getting it to boot from the USB. I have the .iso file on the USB drive. I was able to change the boot order, pushing the IDE0 Hitachi HTS545016 9A300, which I assumed was the hard drive, to number 5 in the Boot Priority Order. USB FDD, USB HDD, and USB CDROM are now the first three in the boot priority order. But it keeps booting in Windows. I kept reading about safe boot, but I did not see an option to disable safe boot on the BIOS menus.

Attempting to solve this problem by searching the internet left me more confused than enlightened. I saw any number of posts involving long sequences of incomprehensible instructions. The instructions that I understood apparently do not apply to the version of BIOS that I have. I am reluctant to follow instructions that I do not understand at all. I am willing to proceed with partial understanding. ;-) In any event, it was hard to figure out which instructions to follow.

Obviously I am not a computer jock, but usually I can solve computer problems with a little research on the internet. I am typing this on my Mac, but I am somewhat familiar with XP and with Windows 7. I set up my wife's new computer on Windows 10, but have not spent a lot of time using Windows 10. I have never used LINUX, and used UNIX a long time ago.

How did you put the iso on the USB boot drive (it's not just a matter of copying the iso)?

I would recommend that you do it with Rufus on XP.

That insyde bios is not a well liked product. There are web pages that detail how to use some of the "unlocked" features if any exist.

However, a usb made properly would normally show up as a hard drive order not a boot media order. That isn't locked in stone but insert usb (after you fixed it) and then power up to bios. Then look for hard drive order.

A F key at boot may also work to select.

Some bios don't "see" usb's until a few tries in bios even.

First mistake
 

It sounds like my first mistake was just copying the .iso file to the USB memory. I will find rufus and start over.

Apparently my BIOS is not a favorite for Linux......

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Richard

PS. After using rufus, I saw the puppy on the screen, so I have made progress.

You might also check the BIOS to see whether 1) the machine is capable of booting from USB and 2) it's not set to "boot from hard drive" as an earlier choice than "boot from USB" (if it is, you'll need to change the boot order).

How to get into the BIOS varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Commonly, during POST, there will appear a message that says "Press [something] to enter setup." "Setup" in this case refers to the BIOS.

I have the Insyde BIOS too on my Sony Viao and the only way I can get a Live Linux usb to boot is to press F11 while the machine is booting up.

***Before you throw out that laptop try Anti-X.***
-::-It's designed for older computers.-::-

http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

On the Acer Aspire One I have which originally came with xp, the USB HDD set to first boot priority will boot a flash drive. If your model has two usb ports on the right, it needs to be plugged into the front usb port as it won't boot plugged into the other port.

I was able to get the WIFI working, so that is good. I downloaded Firefox 11.0.

Unfortunately, every site I go to it says "This connection is untrusted." I have to go through two or three screens to authorize the exception. Is there some way around that?

Should I be using a different browser?

Thanks to all.

Richard

Lucky
 

Wow. I was really lucky to randomly pick the USB port that will work.....

Glad to hear you were able to get the WiFi working.
What worked?

The current version of FF is 53.0.2:-
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

WIFI
 

The WIFI was not a real problem to get working, it was more that I was expecting problems there. It took a couple of tries to get it to go, but I am not sure what I did differently the second time.

Anyway, except for not understanding that I needed to use rufus to format the USB drive and put on the .iso file, so far it has gone well.

Richard

I had a L/W Linux on my netbooks too, they become a bit slow using Firefox with just 1GB ram, but speed up well if you can make it 2GB. :)

(If you have problems or don't like Puppy, I recommend using AntiX on it.)

Thanks for the details.

What distro are you trying to boot Live on the flash drive?

Puppy Distro
 

I am using the Puppy Distro. Everything seems to be working now, but I am having to learn a new operating system.

I used to run Puppy in VBox. Cool distro!;)

Yeah, learning a new os can be a bit of a curve but I'm sure you will get it.

The Puppy Package Manager is your friend.

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PPM
http://puppylinux.org/main/Manual-English.htm

Good Luck and enjoy your Puppy Linux:-